ON THE NEW DYNAMICS OF HOTEL DISTRIBUTION

The consolidation of OTA giants has centralised the distribution channels for hotels, which are not only investing heavily in direct bookings but are also looking for new marketing channels. We asked Andrew Hughes, Regional Director Hotel Sourcing of Hotelbeds, what he thinks of the distribution landscape at the moment.

The distribution landscape is constantly evolving. There are so many developments, we’d take days to cover them, though two stand out at the moment. Firstly, consolidation is occurring and will continue to occur, largely driven through the desire of hoteliers and B2B clients to leverage partners’ technology to optimize their business. Secondly, there’s increased pressure on intermediaries to demonstrate value in the supply chains, as well as the clear ability to in uence clients to preference certain partners over others. It’s also no longer enough to have strong data available, intermediaries and travel companies need to demonstrate the ability to turn the data into commercial outcomes.